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Interview with Giacomo Gorini, Italian Consul to Trabizon in 1915
This interview was published in the August 27-28 issues of 1915 of the Italian Messaggero and highlights the inner situation of the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the interview, Giacomo Gorini also touches upon the violence committed against the Armenians. This extract was republished in the October 15 issue of 1915 of the Turin based "Armenia" monthly.
- In the end I would like you to say whether the publications about the violence against the Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey are true?
- In different vilayets (regions) the Armenians are being tortured in various ways. They are prosecuted and suspected everywhere. They are undergoing real massacres that are even worse than the genocide. Unfortunately, the five most important and Armenian-populated vilayets (7 vilayets) are under the legacy of my consulate. I mean Trabizon, Erzroum, Van, Bitlis and Svaz. In my territories, since June 24, they began exiling all the Armenians and deport them to the farther parts of the country. Only few of them managed to reach Mesopotamia, while the majority of them were killed with incredible cruelty.
The official instructions were given from very Constantinople, by the central authorities and Union and Progress Party. The local authorities, even the Muslims, try to resist, to soften the measures, to set free or hide the Armenians, but everything was in vain. The instructions given by the central authorities were strictly confirmed and everybody should have obeyed and followed them.
Our consulate tried to save the children and the women, at least. But the local bodies of Union and Progress Party broke many promises given, as the orders came from Constantinople. Real genocide and massacre of the innocent residents was carried out. That was an unprecedented case, a black page, an open prosecution of the sacred rules of the humanity, of Christianity and national identity. Even the Armenian Catholics that used to be respected and could evade prosecutions and massacres, were prosecuted in the extremely brutal ways by the order of the central powers.
When I was to depart only a hundred of Armenians were left from over 14.000 Gregorian, Catholic and Protestant Armenians that never committed illegal actions or deserved the warnings of the police. Since June 24, the day that notorious order was published till July 23, the day of my departure from Trabizon I could neither sleep nor eat, was deeply depressed. It was a real torture to be present at the massacre of unarmed and innocent people.
The groups of Armenians were passing under the windows of the consulate, urging for help, but neither me nor other employees could do anything for them. 15.000 soldiers, thousands of policemen and gangs of volunteers, as well as special groups of Union and Progress Party members kept the city under siege. Tears, sufferings, curses, many murders, mad people, people dying of fear, fires, shootings, brutal prosecutions, hundreds of new corpses in the streets each day, women that were turned to Muslims by force, children kidnapped from Christian families and schools and given to the Muslim families. Many people were placed into boats and doused into the Black Sea or the Dere Mendere River. These are my last and unforgettable memories of Trabizon that torture my soul.
Let me finish my interview by this and state that this black page of Turkey’s history should be strictly condemned. If they knew everything I know, everything I saw with my eyes and heard with my ears, all the Christian states that occupied neutral positions should unite against Turkey and condemn its brutal and feral authorities, its barbaric Union and Progress party, and call their allies for responsibility, as they stand and help to hide the terrible crime that has no equal neither in the Ancient nor in the New History.
Disgrace, Terror and Humiliation.
This interview was published in the August 27-28 issues of 1915 of the Italian Messaggero and highlights the inner situation of the Ottoman Empire. By the end of the interview, Giacomo Gorini also touches upon the violence committed against the Armenians. This extract was republished in the October 15 issue of 1915 of the Turin based "Armenia" monthly.
- In the end I would like you to say whether the publications about the violence against the Armenians in the Ottoman Turkey are true?
- In different vilayets (regions) the Armenians are being tortured in various ways. They are prosecuted and suspected everywhere. They are undergoing real massacres that are even worse than the genocide. Unfortunately, the five most important and Armenian-populated vilayets (7 vilayets) are under the legacy of my consulate. I mean Trabizon, Erzroum, Van, Bitlis and Svaz. In my territories, since June 24, they began exiling all the Armenians and deport them to the farther parts of the country. Only few of them managed to reach Mesopotamia, while the majority of them were killed with incredible cruelty.
The official instructions were given from very Constantinople, by the central authorities and Union and Progress Party. The local authorities, even the Muslims, try to resist, to soften the measures, to set free or hide the Armenians, but everything was in vain. The instructions given by the central authorities were strictly confirmed and everybody should have obeyed and followed them.
Our consulate tried to save the children and the women, at least. But the local bodies of Union and Progress Party broke many promises given, as the orders came from Constantinople. Real genocide and massacre of the innocent residents was carried out. That was an unprecedented case, a black page, an open prosecution of the sacred rules of the humanity, of Christianity and national identity. Even the Armenian Catholics that used to be respected and could evade prosecutions and massacres, were prosecuted in the extremely brutal ways by the order of the central powers.
When I was to depart only a hundred of Armenians were left from over 14.000 Gregorian, Catholic and Protestant Armenians that never committed illegal actions or deserved the warnings of the police. Since June 24, the day that notorious order was published till July 23, the day of my departure from Trabizon I could neither sleep nor eat, was deeply depressed. It was a real torture to be present at the massacre of unarmed and innocent people.
The groups of Armenians were passing under the windows of the consulate, urging for help, but neither me nor other employees could do anything for them. 15.000 soldiers, thousands of policemen and gangs of volunteers, as well as special groups of Union and Progress Party members kept the city under siege. Tears, sufferings, curses, many murders, mad people, people dying of fear, fires, shootings, brutal prosecutions, hundreds of new corpses in the streets each day, women that were turned to Muslims by force, children kidnapped from Christian families and schools and given to the Muslim families. Many people were placed into boats and doused into the Black Sea or the Dere Mendere River. These are my last and unforgettable memories of Trabizon that torture my soul.
Let me finish my interview by this and state that this black page of Turkey’s history should be strictly condemned. If they knew everything I know, everything I saw with my eyes and heard with my ears, all the Christian states that occupied neutral positions should unite against Turkey and condemn its brutal and feral authorities, its barbaric Union and Progress party, and call their allies for responsibility, as they stand and help to hide the terrible crime that has no equal neither in the Ancient nor in the New History.
Disgrace, Terror and Humiliation.
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